Let Me Save You This Time
by DelicateInnocence
Summary: "...he didn't think shoe-skating was on his agenda tonight. Or at least he hadn't thought it was until just a moment later when he spotted something on the ice. Something that was a very impractical shade of orange and not moving." Craig finds Kenny in a bad sort and takes it upon himself to help the poor kid out. Rated M for the final chapter.
1. Chapter 1

It was no surprise that it was snowing.

Regardless of season, South Park was perpetually covered in the stuff. Even in the shadow of dusk, the blinding white snow stood stark against every building and parked car along the road. Another thing added a severe contrast to the snow, but this one was mobile. Try as they might, the snow flakes could not coat the moving figure fast enough before they melted into his blue chullo hat and equally blue hoodie.

Craig Tucker didn't mind the snow. It was at least better than summer, when he had to remove his hat lest he get heat stroke. The only problem was, he didn't like OTHERS in the snow. Pre-pubescent children making stupid snowmen and giggling when they made dicks or boobs for them and hurriedly kicked their sculpture down when a parents came by. The adults complaining about how their car had been snowed in or the roads were too icy to drive.

People were idiots and Craig had taken to staying indoors when the majority of them were out.

But now, at approximately 12:43 in the morning, Craig didn't mind the snow.

He'd walked about four blocks from his house when he'd realized he'd forgotten his gloves at home and now as he walked still further away from the warmth of his room, he cursed the fact that his pockets weren't heated like car seats. Craig bunched up the sleeves of his hoodie around his fists and shoved them deeper into the jacket pockets, hoping that this futile effort would suddenly warm him up.

Craig caught sight of Stark's Pond, an area that had once been quite nice to look at, but now shriveled away to weeds and tall grass...or in this case, knee high snow. The whole pond was frozen over and, resigning himself to what very well could be his snowy grave, Craig trudged through the snow to tap a foot onto the ice pond.

He took two steps onto it and bounced a little on the balls of his feet. His sneakers gripped the ice well enough that he didn't immediately slip, but he didn't think shoe-skating was on his agenda tonight. Or at least he hadn't thought it was until just a moment later when he spotted something on the ice. Something that was a very impractical shade of orange and not moving.

Craig knew immediately who it was; who wouldn't have known the trademark colors of Kenneth McCormick by now, but it didn't motivate him to move any faster as he inched out over the frozen pond. He reluctantly took his hands out of his pockets and spread his arms a little out to each side for balance and cursed under his breath.

"If I drown for your sorry ass, I'll haunt you forever."

His own voice almost startled Craig, so silent had his walk been so far.

Finally reaching his old classmate's side, Craig crouched down and poked at Kenny's side. Much to Craig's relief, Kenny cracked an eye open immediately.

"Heeey, Craig." Kenny said, his speech a little hard to understand through the raised collar of his parka, but Craig had spent weeks learning Kenny's language when they had been in school. They had sort of been friends for a time and once, Kenny had even worked for Craig on a school produced television show.

Craig did his duty as what was supposed to be a concerned citizen, checking Kenny's forehead with the back of his hand, despite his hand being so cold he couldn't have accurately checked for temperature unless Kenny's forehead was kind enough to turn into an ice cube and tell Craig directly.

"How long have you been laying here?" Craig asked, his voice sounding even more nasally thanks to the sniffles he'd been getting from being out in the cold for his walk.

Kenny didn't answer right away, staring directly above him where the stars should have been and for a moment, Craig wondered if he'd died. But eventually, Kenny inhaled a long breath, one that seemed almost laborious, and replied.

"I dunno. Three...maybe four hours."

"Why didn't you take a nap in bed, like normal people do? Ice can't be very comfortable." Craig asked, not even sure why he'd said 'normal people'. He knew for a fact, Kenny McCormick was anything but normal.

"Well..I went out to smoke a few...wound up here. No idea." Kenny blinked and Craig could see the motion was slow and probably difficult to do.

"I won't even ask how much you smoked." Craig stated, but Kenny answered with, "A lot!" and an uneasy giggle.

"I could leave you here, you know. Or cut the ice so you fall into the water and freeze...or drown, whichever happened first." Craig mused, his eyes watching for a reaction from Kenny.

"You could." Kenny nodded slowly. "I'd respawn in my bed, so that would be one way."

Respawn. Kenny used that word a lot, like he was simply living in a video game where someone could snipe you from the rooftops and you'd simply relocate back at base with shitty weapons. Craig was one of the few people who knew about Kenny's 'condition'. He'd once found pride in the fact that he was the only observant student in the entire class, but one by one, a few others started noticing. Craig sort of wished he could have told Kenny he'd known. Given the boy someone to talk to about what was going on.

But when others noticed, Kenny turned to his best friends and the allure of being the hero for Kenny McCormick for fucking once went away.

"I'm not going to kill you." Craig finally stated, breaking the silence that had fallen between them and causing Kenny to jump a little on the ice. Apparently Craig had startled him. Good.

"Oh? Okay." Kenny frowned, an action Craig almost missed under the fur of the parka. "What'cha gonna do then?"

"Are you still high?" Craig asked.

"Um...fairly." Kenny tried to shift his limbs but barely succeeded in making them twitch. "I am lazy and want munchies fucking now. That's high, right?"

Craig could have rolled his eyes. And so he did. Even when his life was in danger, Kenny pretended to the world that he didn't care. And maybe, just maybe, he was high enough from the pot that he genuinely didn't right now. But Craig would rather kill Stripes than admit that he'd just believed Kenny's lies and let him die on the ice of Stark's Pond.

"Try to lift yourself up." Craig instructed and Kenny groaned. Craig cut it off with a sharp raise of his middle finger and helped the poor boy up to a sitting position. Kenny weighed practically nothing, even with the parka covered in ice and snow, so it wasn't too hard for Craig to coax him up a little further and get him to grip onto Craig's shoulders from behind. The hard part now was standing up and getting Kenny to work with him so this piggy back was successful and not end up with Kenny just choking Craig to death.

"Legs." Craig ordered, just as he pushed up with all the strength he had in his own legs and felt a flood of relief run through him as Kenny obeyed and locked his legs just above Craig's hips. Some awkward maneuvering later and Kenny had a safe grip on Craig and the darker haired boy was carefully making his way off the ice.

Curiosity overwhelmed Craig as they finally made it back to snow and solid ground and he asked, "Why don't you just smoke at home? I can't see that being a problem. Your family sells the shit."

"My parents always steal my stash." Kenny replied lazily, resting his head on Craig's shoulder. "If they smell it and they aren't currently doing it, they come upstairs and _confiscate_ it." An added emphasis was put to 'confiscate' that led Craig to believe Kenny knew his parents were just addicts and wanted more more more.

Craig said nothing as they got to the main road and started off in the general direction he believed Kenny's house was in. He'd never actually been over to the McCormick's house, but the ghetto didn't house many people so it was either the house with the crack shack in the back, the cardboard box or the house that literally just WAS a shack. That probably also housed crack.

The silence was almost welcoming now, after the little interruption to his walk. Craig could almost forget he had a whole human being on his back in the silence between them. The walk was fairly easy too, and Kenny, regardless of how icy his parka was, began to slowly warm up with Craig's body heat. Warmth blossomed where Kenny was pressed against him, making his jacket almost too warm. However the warmth on his hands was almost better than gloves. Almost.

Craig could see the ghetto only about two streets down by the time either of them spoke again. Kenny appeared to be coming down from his high and shifted idly from breathing into Craig's shoulder or breathing against his neck. The breath was warm so Craig didn't mind, but the steady rhythm of it broke as Kenny mumbled, "You could have just let me die, dude. It's no big deal."

The urge to drop Kenny in the snow just to teach him a lesson loosened the grip Craig had on Kenny's legs and he awkwardly tried to hoist Kenny up properly again.

"You know, I've told you this before, but you are an asshole." Craig said. "You and all your friends. Assholes."

Kenny seemed to take offense to that, lifting his head from Craig's shoulder and saying, "What do you mean by that, Craig?"

"I'm not the kind of guy who just lets somebody die." Craig huffed in response, nearly missing a step from the exertion his body was now feeling from having to hold this position for so long just to keep Kenny on his back. "I mean, if it's unavoidable, I guess maybe."

"It's no big deal, really." Kenny argued. "I'll just wake up at home and no one will notice. No one would accuse you of murdering me, hell, I was expecting you to."

"Someone would notice." Craig muttered, frustrated with where this conversation was headed.

"Who? Everyone sort of just takes it in stride. I mean, sure, if I die right in front of them, people have started noticing. But here, alone, on the ice?" Kenny paused mid rant to look at Craig. Or at least, that what Craig guessed he'd done because he'd felt Kenny shift and there was no arguing. He heard a brief intake of breath and braced himself for more suicidal tidbits from Kenny McCormick.

_This kid could be a TV show_, Craig thought, _Suicide Hour with Kenneth McCormick._

But what came out wasn't exactly more death talk.

"Oh. You'd know. And that'd make you feel bad, wouldn't it?" Kenny asked softly. There was somewhat of a teasing tone as he added, "Craig Tucker has feelings, who knew?" but Craig could tell his heart wasn't in the joke.

"Fuck, I hate making people feel bad." Kenny mumbled, laying his head back on Craig's shoulder as they neared his house.

"Then stop being a fucking idiot?" Craig offered half-heartedly.

Kenny chuckled and Craig found himself almost smiling. It wasn't often he got to just chat with Kenny anymore, even if the conversation was as grim as this one.

They must have reached Kenny's house because the boy began clambering to get down from Craig's grip. Craig looked over to see which house Kenny had noticed and raised an eyebrow. So it was the house with the crack shack in the back. Huh.

"Listen, thanks for taking me home." Kenny gestured weakly at Craig and backed up a bit. His heel caught the poorly made sidewalk and he nearly tipped over, but Craig grabbed his wrist and said, "Really? Do I need to walk you to your room too?"

Kenny grinned widely and gave a short laugh.

"Only if you wanna, big boy." Kenny teased, giving Craig a wink and causing the darker haired boy to unintentionally let a smile show through his usual expressionless mask.

Even with the jokes, Craig could see that Kenny was still uneasy on his feet. This wasn't just drugs, there was something else wrong. Laying on that ice had probably frozen half of his limbs and it would take time for him to readjust to them again.

"You're freezing." Craig observed. It wasn't a question and Kenny knew it.

"I'll warm up by the fire." Kenny stuck his thumb out in the direction of his house.

"You don't have a fire pit." Unamused.

"Well, we've got a backyard area away from my parents work shed that I can start a fire on." Kenny shrugged, knowing he was going to lose this battle, but fighting anyway.

"And end up on the news tomorrow morning when you've smoked out the whole ghetto." Craig shoved his hands back into his pockets. The lack of body heat from behind him was causing the cold to seep back into him and fast.

"Well then what do you suggest, oh wise one?" Kenny asked, throwing his arms out in frustration.

Craig sighed.

"Look, it's more moving, but why don't you come over to my place?" Craig offered, biting his tongue to keep from telling Kenny just to go steal blankets and leave him alone. And also, don't die.

Kenny seemed a little confused.

"You saved my life and now invite me over to your house. Dude, who are you and what have you done with Craig?"

"Just shut the fuck up already and come on. I can call a taxi, you're too fucking heavy to carry all the way back again." Craig snarled, reaching his limit on patience and pulling out his phone, dialing the South Park taxi service with nearly numb fingers.

Usually the taxi's stayed away from the ghetto, but since there were only two taxi's in the entire town of South Park, sometimes exceptions needed to be made. Kenny fell into the back seat while Craig took the front passenger seat. He was paying, so he might as well.

"Adventure!" Kenny exclaimed weakly from the back seat.

Craig just rolled his eyes and directed the driver where to go.

00000

**Author's Note:**

Had the idea for this in the lull between chapters of my other story, "I Hate You Less Than Usual".

This will be a **two** parter and the final part should be out in the next couple of days.

My fifth chapter in I Hate You Less... will be out by **Sunday** of this week at the latest.


	2. Chapter 2

The taxi took off at its own leisurely pace, lingering outside Craig's front steps so long the Tucker boy had raised both his middle fingers before the taxi driver put his foot on the gas pedal.

"Nothing better to do, dumbass." Craig mumbled, though the driver couldn't hear him anymore.

Kenny was wobbling on his unsteady feet, a smirk firmly in place across his chapped lips.

"Wow, and I once wondered why you never had people over." He teased and let himself be led by Craig to the front door. He'd decided, and voiced aloud in the taxi, that he would stop fighting Craig about being alright or not, on the grounds that he bet Craig would just pull a Misery on him and break his legs just to get Kenny to sit still.

Craig had applauded the use of a Stephen King book, but had glared at Kenny all the same. Like he'd break someone's legs just to take care of them...he'd just knock Kenny out, it was much easier.

Kenny blinked in the light of the main foyer as Craig opened the front door and they caught sight of the Tucker family sitting in the living room watching a movie. Upon closer inspection, Kenny realized they were watching a Leonardo DiCaprio movie.

"Where have you been, Craig?" Thomas Tucker, Craig's father, called from the couch.

"Why are you awake at one in the morning, dad?" Craig returned without answering.

The red head on the couch raised a middle finger to which Craig responded with his own. A young girl Kenny knew as Craig's sister spotted the motion and raised her own middle finger to no one in particular.

"Your family really knows how to welcome a guest." Kenny said sarcastically, but he was smiling all the same. A middle finger was much better than the shit that went on at his own house.

"You brought someone over? Craig, it's one in the morning!" Thomas had actually taken the time to turn around and see his son this time and Craig shrugged, kicking his shoes off by the front door.

"Fuck off, dad." Craig said and turned to Kenny. "Let's go upstairs."

"Leave your door open!" Mrs Tucker, whom Kenny didn't know the first name of, called after them.

"I'm not fucking six years old, mom, I can do whatever I want with my door." Craig didn't even pause on his way up the stairs and Kenny chuckled.

Reaching the doorway of Craig's room, Kenny peered in curiously. It was rather messy, like Craig hadn't bothered to even put his laundry away...like ever. Books, mostly of the comic variety, were stacked on his desk and bedside table and a nearly inaudible squeak brought Kenny's attention to the small guinea pig hidden behind the stacks of books.

Kenny wasn't sure if it was the same guinea pig, but Craig had barely spoken about Stripe, so he doubted he'd get a straight answer even if he'd asked about it.

"Take off your coat." Craig instructed, standing by his bed and stripping away one of the many blankets he'd piled on to keep the cold out at night.

"Why?" Kenny asked. He was already halfway through unzipping his coat anyway, but he found it a curious set of words, coming from Craig Tucker.

"Because it was on the ice with you for that whole time, it's probably soaking by now. I'll put it in the dryer."

Craig moved back to Kenny, draping one of the warmer blankets over his damp T-shirt and bare arms, encouraging him to hold it together while he took the parka instead. He'd been right; both pieces of clothing were wet, The ice had just fucking melted into the parka and Craig grimaced, holding it with just his index finger and thumb, as if it was covered in a less agreeable substance.

"I'll be right back." Craig said, and left the room to head downstairs. He made sure to take the long way around, using the hallway closer to the dining room to get to the laundry, not wanting to have to interact with his family again.

A shiver worked its way through him as he set up the dryer and threw Kenny's parka in. He curled his toes and hissed, having sort of forgotten that he had been on the ice too and in direct contact with the soaking wet orange mess. After a moment of thought, he slipped off his own jacket and rested it on top of the dryer. The two colors wouldn't mix well so he'd have to dry it later, but that didn't really matter.

Stifling a yawn, warmth from the house very slowly trying to creep into him, Craig headed back upstairs to see Kenny perched on the edge of his bed, blanket bundled around him like he was heading into a blizzard. All Craig could see was a tuft of blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes.

"Comfortable?" Craig arched an eyebrow.

"I'm hungry." Was the response.

Craig sighed, not wanting to have to go back downstairs, but he had been the one to drag Kenny all the way over here so...

"Do you want a snack?"

"Yes." Kenny looked at Craig, his eyes glazed over but still alight with a sense of urgency. Apparently he had been serious when he'd mentioned wanting munchies.

"What do you w-"

"I'll just come with, you don't have to baby me." Kenny laughed, standing up a little uneasily and keeping the blanket tucked tight around him.

"Fine." Craig led the way downstairs and practically held his breath as they passed his family, hoping that no one would question them. "What do you want?"

"Got any poptarts?" Kenny asked.

"Got any original snack ideas?" Craig said back sarcastically, but he pulled open the cupboards to look regardless. Luckily for Kenny, Craig's sister was a huge fan of poptarts, so there were at least three different kinds to choose from.

"Sweet." Kenny said enviously, choosing a strawberry flavored one and letting Craig put the boxes away. He curled his blanket covered fingers around the package to keep it in place while keeping himself fully enveloped in the fabric. "Aren't you cold?" He asked as an afterthought, seeing Craig's slightly damp shirt and distinct lack of warm blanket around his shoulders.

"I'll warm up in a bit." Craig shrugged, grabbing a bag of chips from the pantry and motioning for Kenny to follow him back upstairs. "You want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure. What kinds you got?"

"All kinds. What genre do you like?"

"Anything."

"You're real fucking helpful, you know that?" Craig gave Kenny a withering look, but the blonde merely smiled and unwrapped his poptarts.

Despite his mother's wishes, Craig closed his bedroom door and had the nerve to place his desk chair under the handle to keep it from opening too easily. Kenny found himself laughing at this though Craig ignored him and went about setting up the entertainment. Craig had a little television propped on an equally small stand backed up in front of his closet doors. It seemed to get basic cable so when Craig turned the television on, a gravelly announcer's voice called out "A thousand ways to die!"

"Hey, this sounds interesting." Kenny called, biting into the pop tart.

"This? Oh, this will be real fun." Craig rolled his eyes and went to change the program, but Kenny let out a series of strange noises to stop him and the dark haired boy eventually gave up and settled himself on his bed to watch the show. Kenny crawled along the covers to sit next to Craig, eyes focused on the screen with actual interest. He vaguely wondered how many of these he could tick off his own death list.

It took all of a half an hour for Craig to get annoyed with watching the show. Kenny had been laughing at nearly every one, whether out of his high or out of a macabre fascination with death, Craig wasn't sure.

"Oh, look, one about freezing to death. Look, look." Kenny pointed at the television and Craig was about sixty percent sure that this enthusiasm was from the drugs.

"I'm looking." Craig rolled his eyes, glancing not at the TV but instead to Kenny to see if he could catch signs of shivering. He'd taken Kenny here to warm up, but aside from giving him a blanket, he hadn't really done much. The fireplace was downstairs and until his family went to sleep, Craig wouldn't venture down there again.

"Are you still cold?" He asked, unable to tell anything from under the blanket.

"A bit. Legs feel like they're on fire a bit, cheeks sting...fingers still a bit uncoordinated." Kenny flexed his fingers and felt them move sluggishly, as if fighting his command. He frowned a bit at this and Craig slid across the covers to reposition himself behind Kenny.

Without really thinking about it, Craig's fingers dug into Kenny's shoulders, starting up a massage he'd been told he was quite good at. Sometimes Clyde Donovan would pay him to give him massages after work. He'd said Craig's skill was usually enough to override the sarcasm and belittling comments Craig made during the time spent together.

"What are you doing?" Kenny asked, looking behind him and his chin bumped against Craig's working fingers. "I mean, it feels really nice and shit, but what are you doing?"

"Warming you up." Craig shrugged, running his fingers along the base of Kenny's neck and Kenny instinctively tilted his head to give Craig the room to work. "It'll get the blood flowing better if I do it right."

"Then by all means, work away. Last time anyone entertained me with their fingers, those digits weren't on my back, if you get my drift." Kenny chuckled to himself, unable to see the look of disgust on Craig's face as he understood exactly what Kenny was insinuating.

"I don't want to know what you do with your bimbos." Craig scowled, wondering just who in town had gone that far with Kenny, knowing his history. He felt a pressure in his chest as he did this so the whirlwind of faces he knew that was raging through his head died down almost immediately and he focused on the task at hand. Literally.

He curved his fingers, digging in where he could and forcing Kenny to react to his touch. A few satisfying cracks sounded from Kenny's back and shoulders and with each adjustment, a sigh of contentment would escape the blonde. Craig tugged the blanket off Kenny's shoulders, ignoring the mild protest before Kenny became enraptured with the show again, and continued. It was easier without the extra fabric in the way, but the cool dampness of Kenny's shirt wasn't much better.

"Ugh, can you take this off?" Craig asked, withdrawing his hands and leaning around to get Kenny's attention.

"I _can_, a better question might be why do you want me shirtless?" Kenny cocked an eyebrow and smirked. Craig retaliated with a sharp smack to Kenny's arm and the blonde hissed, flinching away. "Well, I can feel my arm, that's definitely unthawed."

"Excellent, my testing worked."

"Testing my ass." Kenny muttered and Craig had the balls to chuckle. "Are you laughing at me?"

"Sorry, just...what you said was a little...nevermind, just take your shirt off will'ya?" Craig waved a hand dismissively and Kenny just grinned, shaking his head slowly. He eventually lifted the shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor, the dampness causing his hair to stick up at odd angles. Craig smirked and left it alone.

Kenny's skin was cold and warm at the same time. He was definitely heating up on the outside, but it would take some time before he warmed all the way through. Every now and then he'd shiver just a bit and recover so Craig took the blanket and tried to sponge off some of the moisture left on his skin before he dug in with his fingers again.

Kenny stared ahead at the screen but smiled softly in what might have been disbelief.

"You're a pretty nice guy, Craig." Kenny commented and Craig scoffed aloud.

"I don't want to hear that from you." It was more just something to say, really. Craig was too involved in his work to put much effort into his retorts.

"Warming me up like this, patting me down. Don't tell me, next you're going to take care of my burning legs and as your hands work up, getting my blood pumping, you're going to ask me to take my underwear off and try warming up my- OW!" Kenny twisted violently out of Craig's reach when the dark haired boy jabbed a finger in a sensitive area of his back.

"You can be fucking grateful that I took your stoned ass in and am being a nice guy, or you can go home." Craig snapped, resting his hands on his legs and waiting for Kenny to decide what to do. "One more inappropriate comment and I'll cripple you."

Kenny opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but instead he just started laughing. Craig raised an eyebrow and Kenny managed to choke out through his sudden fit, "Sorry, not even sure what's funny!"

Craig was now mostly sure that Kenny's previous high was the cause for a lot of his enthusiasm to everything.

Kenny eventually sat back down and shifted carefully back in front of Craig. He heaved a dramatic sigh and said, "Will you please continue? Seriously, I was being a jack ass, but that felt really nice."

"No more sex comments?" Craig pressed.

"Only if you want me to." Kenny held up a hand like he was swearing to god or something, but Craig didn't much care. He started lower this time, getting his fingers around Kenny's waist and digging his thumbs in. It was quiet between them for a while and Craig welcomed the silence. Well, the silence punctuated by narration from the television, but it was nice not to have to hold a conversation. He preferred the silence.

It was easy to lose himself in his work but it slowly became apparent to Craig that something was off. Kenny was sort of vibrating, but it wasn't a constant thing. He'd shudder softly and then go back to normal, only to repeat the same thing when Craig's fingers pushed into his back again.

"Are...are you purring?" Craig asked, midway through digging his fingers in and Kenny tilted his head back lazily.

"Hmm? Oh...I guess? You're really good at this." Kenny's voice was lethargic and it was obvious that he was being lulled a bit by the massage. Or perhaps just the lack of moving or doing anything. When Craig looked, Kenny had finished his poptarts and his hands were at rest in his lap, fingers twitching every so often and Craig guessed they were slowly getting back to normal.

"Thanks...I think." Craig cocked his head to the side and frowned a bit. Was he really good enough to elicit a purr from someone? "Are you warming up?"

"Yerp- ah." Kenny cut whatever nonsense was coming out of him with a sudden fit of giggles and he shook his head. "I fucking meant to say 'Yes'. Don't know what that shit was."

"Good."

"Keep going though." Kenny said, shifting a little on the sheets to try and keep his rear end from falling asleep, though he could already kind of feel the pins and needles.

Craig wasn't sure exactly why he kept going, but the purrs started up again. It was fascinating to Craig. If someone were to ask him just how long he'd sat there with his fingers exploring Kenny's back, sides and shoulders, he would have no definite answer. The television program seemed to be on a marathon, so one episode faded into the next and into the next. Kenny had practically fallen into his lap and a heavy but decidedly warmer weight rested against Craig's legs and his fingers had begun exploring Kenny's collarbones and slightly malnourished abdomen.

Kenny's purring had turned to soft noises when Craig's fingers reached the area around his navel and it took all of five full minutes for Craig to notice the slight abnormality in Kenny's pants.

"Kenny." Craig cooed, his voice dangerously low but not obvious enough to send warning signs to the blissfully pampered blonde. "Are you hard?"

Kenny grinned, the motion stretching his lips slowly and with his eyes shut, he almost looked like he was having a good dream.

"I might be. Blame your fingers." Kenny said, his voice so low Craig almost couldn't hear it.

"I think your massage has gone on long enough." Craig decided and withdrew his fingers. The absence caused Kenny to open his eyes and frown.

"Aww, come on. Just cos I'm enjoying it?" Kenny pouted and Craig helped him to sit back up properly.

"Enjoying it a little too much." Craig said coolly, shifting back across the sheets.

"I'm not warm enough." Kenny complained, eyes on Craig with a rather intense expression Craig hadn't seen in the blonde before. Something twisted in his stomach; a mixture of apprehension and excitement.

"I'm sure the blanket can do the rest." Craig snapped.

"I'm not sure the blanket's what I want." Kenny shifted on the bed and Craig immediately realized he'd done something wrong. He'd seen Kenny as a man in need of help. He'd taken Kenny to his home. Taken his shirt off. Put his hands on him. Oh shit.

Kenny's lips were over Craig's before the dark haired male could figure out exactly how to deal with the situation, so all that came out was a squeak of protest and a thump as he was pushed back on the bed.

Craig tried to say something along the lines of "Get off me" but it was muffled and incoherent with Kenny's mouth and tongue in the way. There were so many things running through Craig's usually one track mind right now. One was that he could feel, despite his massage, Kenny had been marginally right about one thing. Parts of him were still chilly. His fingers skimmed up Craig's sides, pushing his shirt up and they felt like he'd had them in the fridge for an abnormally long time. His lips were warm but his nose was cold. Out of curiosity, Craig reached up to cup Kenny's face, one hand roaming around to feel along the shell of Kenny's ear. It elicited another purr from the blonde, one that Craig tried to ignore, and told him that Kenny's cheeks had warmed up but his ears were still a little cool.

Unfortunately for Craig, his curiosity had been taken as participation, so the ebony haired male was not prepared for what came next. Kenny separated from Craig's lips to tug his shirt up and over his head. Craig didn't see where Kenny tossed the shirt because Kenny kind of dominated everything in sight. He had crawled over Craig so where his hips sat blocked the television. His arms on either side of Craig's head blocked part of his bedroom window and the area right next to the door he'd closed earlier. A small portion of his mind was glad that he'd shut the door, but it was quickly over ruled by the part of his brain that shouted, 'What do you mean, glad, you're being molested by a fucking pervert!'

Craig snuck his hands under Kenny and pushed up with all of his strength to wrench the blonde from his lips and put on his best glare.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Craig, you asked me here to warm me up." Kenny said, smirking slightly and shaking his head so his hair fell almost in front of his eyes. Craig wouldn't admit it, but it was kind of sexy.

Fuck, what was he thinking?

"The massage was nice, but you did this to me." Kenny glanced down at his erection and Craig involuntarily followed his gaze. "Now we both know how this is going to end. You can leave me to my own hand, which isn't nearly as fun, or you can do your job and warm me up."

"My job?" Craig arched an eyebrow.

"I promise I'll make it worth your while." Kenny purred, leaning down to lick along the outer shell of Craig's left ear. The dark haired man shook underneath him and Kenny grinned happily at the reaction.

"Fuck." Craig breathed and Kenny quietly congratulated himself on his success. He wasn't quite sure this was the right course of action, but Kenny often trusted his dick more than his brain. It might have been part of why he got into so much trouble. The congratulating ended, however, when Kenny felt the world tip over and Craig had pinned him down to the bed.

"Oh, hey, I'm top." Kenny protested, but Craig ran his hands swiftly up along Kenny's sensitive sides and he stopped talking.

"My job to warm you up, remember?" Craig growled, unsure whether he was more mad or interested in the new turn of events. He remembered wanting to be a friend to talk to when Kenny died. Now...he wasn't exactly sure what type of support this was and whether or not he really wanted to go through with it.

"Look," Craig said sternly, locking his legs tight against Kenny's hips and his hands planted on either side of Kenny's head. "I'm only doing this because I _did_ offer help to warm you up. This doesn't meant anything or go past tonight, is that clear?"

"Depends. If you're a good fuck, I might have to lock you down." Kenny chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows. Craig took this opportunity to lean down and sharply bite Kenny's shoulder. "OW! Okay, okay. One time thing."

Craig's body moved on auto pilot. He barely even registered that his hands were tugging the belt from Kenny's pants or that Kenny's hands had gone to his thighs. He'd wanted to be a friend to Kenny. Someone to help him where his current friends couldn't. While Craig supposed this did kind of count since he was about ninety percent certain that none of Kenny's current best buds were trying to get into these orange jeans in a hurry, it wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind. Kenny tasted of dirty water when Craig found himself licking a trail along the blonde's neck and chest and the taste in his mouth was definitely unpleasant. He managed to get through it by focusing on the faint left over taste of strawberry pop tart that managed to mask the drug stench that had buried itself into nearly every pore Kenny had offered to it.

Kissing had never been Craig's strong suit, or at least he'd never counted it as one, but much to his surprise Kenny seemed to be responding quite actively to it. Taking a moment from his conflicting thoughts and rapid heart beat, Craig focused on his mouth. When he pressed his lips to Kenny's, the boy would expel a short rush of air like a sigh . When he parted Kenny's lips to slide his tongue inside, Kenny would let out the tiniest of noises, almost like a whimper. And when Craig decided to test nibbling gently on Kenny's lower lip, the boy outright moaned. Hmm. Craig didn't need to even look to know these noises were having an effect on him.

_Damn this jackass,_ Craig thought to himself, taking his frustrations out on Kenny's lips and nearly breaking the zipper on Kenny's jeans as he worked them undone.

Kenny's hands moved to Craig's arms and Craig shivered. Kenny's fingertips were still warming up and his own body was heating uncomfortably to their actions. Craig quickly palmed Kenny through the open jeans and the blonde reacted almost violently; twitching upwards and arching his back with a moan that was nearly lost against Craig's lips. It was reactions like this that Craig blamed for how fast they were moving. It didn't take much longer for Kenny to start undoing Craig's pants and the two found themselves losing clothing rather quickly.

When at last they had nothing left to shed, Kenny pushed forwards against Craig, whining low and resting his hands firmly on Craig's rear. Craig couldn't quite stifle the moan that escaped him when the blonde purposefully pulled and directed their hips so they pressed together and moved.

"Do you have any condoms?" Kenny breathed and Craig almost laughed. He hadn't thought that far in and all other thoughts were dispelled as he tried to remember the correct answer to that question.

"Underwear drawer. Just a sec." He muttered, reluctantly pulling away from Kenny and moving to his dresser. It was an odd self consciousness that made him try and cover up, futile as it was, but Craig decided right then and there that he didn't like being exposed like this. Especially in front of someone.

"Fitting." Kenny chuckled and Craig shot him a glare. "Hold on, you put that on and I'll get ready."

Craig was about to ask what 'get ready' meant, but Kenny had stuck his fingers in his mouth and was obviously unable to answer him. For a moment, Craig forgot what he was supposed to be doing and he had the suspicious inkling that Kenny knew this as well because the smallest of smirks crossed his lips before he reached down with his wet fingers and began circling a part of him Craig couldn't bring himself to look at. Instead, he fixated on Kenny's face. Which, as it turns out, was almost as bad as watching the blonde boy blatantly stick his fingers up his rear.

Kenny closed his eyes and ignored Craig, having the decency to be just a little embarrassed that he was doing this in perfect sight of someone who, up until recently, he had assumed was straight. Little breathy moans escaped him as he worked his fingers and twitched his hips. He had no doubt that Craig didn't know how to do this very well so he worked diligently to get himself adjusted.

It felt a little like going mad, having to hear Kenny's voice come out in such an erotic way, and it got even worse when Craig finally managed to get the condom on. Kenny peeked out at him and grinned, withdrawing his fingers and moving so he was hovering over Craig's member. He knew that one false move could take Craig completely out of the game, so Kenny gave it his best shot as he wrapped his lips around the tip and tried to judge just how far gone Craig might be by the sound of his voice as he responded with his own little murmurs and moans.

Neither one was sure how long this went on for. Craig couldn't remember exactly when Kenny had led him back down onto the bed and guided him to that point of no return. What he could remember was an unbelievable heat that washed over him when he pushed into his old classmate and began to move. Their breath, mingling together in the space provided them from their position, served to heat them up wonderfully and Craig couldn't help but chuckle lightly as he thought back to his job description. _Warm up Kenny_. Check.

Craig's heart pounded in his chest harder than it had since the last time he'd run track in gym class and that had been at least a year ago. It wasn't really a pleasant feeling, but the tense coil twisting in his gut and lower was enough to distract him from it. Kenny had his eyes squeezed shut, lips parted as he seemed to be unable to take a decent breath without expelling it immediately. Craig felt a little proud that he was seeing Kenny all worked up like this because of him, but quickly shoved that feeling back when he reminded himself this was a one time thing. He wasn't here to be another one of Kenny's 'girlfriends' that the blonde could call up at any time of night for some 'physical support'. He wanted more than that; better than that.

Kenny was breathing out Craig's name now and the dark haired individual felt a painful throb in his chest. Oh how he loved the sound of his name like this. It hadn't happened to him before, so the desperate, thin whisper of his name was thrilling. Just a little too thrilling.

"Oh...fuck." Craig hissed out before the coil in his stomach roughly untangled itself and his whole body shook as he reached climax. Kenny gave a sharp yelp at Craig's sudden tremor and stop but managed to catch himself before he gave any hint of what was going on up here to Craig's parents downstairs.

"Not done." Kenny mumbled, feeling the need to point this out while Craig slumped over him, a little weak from the release. "I'm not done."

Craig could feel Kenny's hands, now warm, trying to direct his hip movements again and halfheartedly rose up to support himself again. He was still shaking a bit and the continued movements certainly didn't help him calm down. His breathing was irregular, his heart rate rapid and he could almost feel himself building back up as he tried to work Kenny to completion. It wasn't until Craig had worked up enough strength to start moving properly that anything improved and by then he was already anxious for another release of his own. It was an uncomfortably desperate feeling but this time, as he let out a poorly stifled cry and came again, Kenny had the good fortune to follow after.

Kenny's fingers curled in the sheets beneath him and he bit his lower lip so hard he tasted blood. He was sore from the prolonged activity and winced as Craig pulled out to clean up a bit. Craig could feel Kenny's eyes on him as he weakly stumbled over to remove the mess from his person and even managed to get his underwear back on before collapsing back onto the bed. He could hear Kenny giggling again and felt the blonde curl himself up against his side and a gentle bite was placed to his shoulder.

"What was that?" Craig asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You bite me, I bite you." Kenny's voice sounded hoarse, like his throat was dry and he was certainly a little breathless. Craig felt another little twist of pride. "Good news. I'm warm now."

Craig couldn't resist a little laugh of his own.

"Fucking good. If that hadn't done the trick, I would have tossed you out on the street and told you to go to hell." Craig said lazily. "You know, cos it's hot, not cos I hate you."

"You don't hate me?" Kenny inquired, sounding genuinely curious.

Craig paused before answering. He blinked up at the ceiling and wondered just how serious Kenny was being with this question. He could answer him sarcastically, there were plenty of ways to say 'No, I just sleep with my enemies as a hobby', but if Kenny was serious it might actually offend him.

"No." Craig settled on the simplest of responses, albeit a little lamely. "I don't hate you."

Kenny didn't respond, but Craig felt the boy tighten his hold on this awkward sort of cuddle, so he guessed he'd said the right thing.

A long while passed between them and Craig drifted off once or twice while waiting for some energy to come back to him. By the time he was able to stand up, Kenny had already fallen asleep and it was insanely difficult to inch his way out of the comfy hold the blonde had had on him. He took the blanket he'd discarded from Kenny earlier and draped it over the naked boy, now suddenly _painfully_ aware that they were incredibly under dressed. Craig's clothes were now colder than he was due to lying on the floor, so he settled for finding some comfy pajamas and curling up under another blanket to coax his body heat to sink into the fabrics.

"Mm."

Kenny mumbled something in his sleep and Craig glanced over to see the blonde shift and tug the blanket closer around his shoulders. Craig was still too comfy, physically, to let himself think too much about anything, so the one thought that managed to take hold was the only one he was able to focus on.

_He'll get cold sleeping naked, that idiot. I didn't know my job was full time._

Craig buttoned up his pajama top, turned the volume down on the TV but left it on so he could watch it while he fell asleep and wordlessly crawled back up onto the bed. Though instead of taking up a separate blanket, he lifted the edge of the one Kenny slept under and fit himself back against his companion as best he could. Without coaxing, Kenny's arms fit themselves around his body and a bare leg crossed his clothed ones to rest there. Much as he wanted to deny it, Craig thought it was...kind of comfy.

_Maybe I kinda like this job,_ he thought to himself, yawning as he settled down to watch late night TV.

**00000000**

**Author's Note:**

Sorry it took so long to get this out, lots of things are stopping up the creative processes. Hope you enjoyed the final part to this story and I will get to work on the next chapter of **IHYLTU** tomorrow! Should be up within the week, my dears.


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